Teleconferencing systems are in widespread use around the world. In such systems, audio streams are provided to the various endpoints to the conference call. The streams may be mixed or combined at one or more of the endpoints and/or at a switch. Although some teleconferencing is done with video images of the various participants, most teleconferencing is still performed using audio alone.
Because most conference calls do not have real time video feed of each of the participants during the call, it is often difficult for a participant to discriminate between remotely located speakers. The participant having difficulty discriminating between the voices of two or more conference participants is hereinafter referred to as the “disadvantaged participant”.
Different speakers can sound alike to a participant for a variety of reasons. For example, it is not unusual for individuals to have similar sounding voices. Poor quality links can cause two otherwise dissimilar sounding speakers to sound similar. Interference can be so pronounced that a remote caller cannot distinguish between several similar sounding people on a call even though the other participants can. Finally, the individual himself may be hard-of-hearing or have some other type of hearing impairment that causes speakers to sound very similar.
Being unable to discriminate between speakers can cause a disadvantaged conference participant to make incorrect assumptions about who is actually speaking at any point in time. As a result, the disadvantaged participant can address the wrong individual in their remarks, which is embarrassing at the least, or be confused about who said what, which can lead to problems after the call is over.